Mr Porgo is trying not to look directly at the fake sun. It hurts his eyes when he even tries.

He shields his eyes with one hand, trying to find the courage to crack up two fingers to let a ray of sun hit his eyes.

The rig employees are dazzled by the change in their usual sky. After the blonde woman cleared the space outside the rig, many left the monitor tower immediately. Some of them went to the outdoors to feel the sun on their faces for the first time in years.

Karen is in a heated argument with a rig employee "...yes I CAN explain to you why a space laser is NOT one of CASTEL's options to remove the worm..." Karen pauses to regroup her emotions and plan her thoughts for one second. She continues: "...those devices are highly inaccurate around plasma sources. Plus they act like sparks. High-power lasers are forbidden around plasma sources because they may spark an explosion." She tries to sound less dogmatic and more caring scientist this time. Maybe a little motherly. She sometimes sees everyone as children.

"Miss Karen, they need you in the monitor room," a polite rig employee informs Karen that she has to leave the warm exhaust area and climb the five-story monitor tower to reach the dark cold monitor room.

Karen sighs and starts the journey.

"Elevators...and air conditioning... I miss you both..."

"I miss air conditioning too!"

Karen looks back to see RJ striding to reach her.

"I grew up in a cyber-city you know." RJ stops in front of Karen.

"You did?" she is slightly surprised by this information.

The Captain is in shock. He tries to regroup his thoughts.

Many things happened in a few seconds.

First, he remembers a bright light that almost blinded him. The helmet's visor immediately turned black and protected his eyes. But the white-haired woman removed the helmet. She put it on her head and covered her face with the black chrome visor. "Bitch, almost blinded me."

She was kind enough to protect his eyes with her shadow. Her head was between him and the blinding fake sun. The Captain tries to remember what happened next but is too angry to remember, plus he is distracted by the scene in front of him. The white-haired woman is wearing black gloves covering her hands up to mid-arm, she forces both of her arms, elbow-deep, into the worm's bleeding flesh, searching for something. "Maybe losing my eyesight is not the worst thing that could happen to me."

The captain slowly walks closer to the woman. Rayne pulls both arms out in an instant, blood gushes out and spills some drops on the captain's face. "Oh I am sorry." She is covering her nose and mouth with a mask made of a black bandana, her eyes look solemn. She walks a few meters to her left to find another scale on the lifeless body of the enormous worm in the snow. She puts her fingers under one of the rock-shaped scales and pulls it off with one sudden movement, throwing the scale in the air. The worm's humongous body jitters, as if shocked by a sharp pain.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The sky is no longer blue. The fake sun is on the edge of the mountain chain to the captain's right. The rig's flame is more orange-colored now; it's been filling the sky with black smoke for the past few minutes. The flame is slowly dying out. The sky looks almost crimson.

Rayne pushes both her arms into the worm's exposed oozing flesh. The captain thinks he saw a glimpse of an electronic device in her right fist before it was buried in the red flesh. She keeps her arms buried for a few seconds. Finally, shaking her head in desperation, she violently pulls both arms out, scattering blood droplets in the air. "Her eyes are closed?" She opens her eyes and start walking along the worm's body, turns her head, as if she just remembered he was there, she stops and looks at the captain. The captain is perplexed by her face. She is wearing a face mask but the captain is certain of the new look in her eyes, they look desperate.

"How can I help?" is the first question that runs inside the captain's head. He ponders for a second before stating it. "I'm a trained medic. I can assist in...whatever surgery you are doing right now."

Rayne's eyes calm down slightly. In a few seconds, her eyes focus on something midair, making her look like a cat focusing on a hunt. "Help me with removing the scales," she finally replies.

The captain looks at what is in front of them. Miles of flesh covered with rock-like scales. Each scale is 30 to 50 centimeters in length. "This is going to take hours..." the captain prefers not to think his thoughts out loud. He removes a 15-centimeter knife from his flank pocket. He remembers that the knife almost pierced him when the woman pushed against it as they entered the icy tunnel.

A few minutes ago the captain was in the middle of blue skies. Rayne had removed his helmet. The sun almost blinded him but he did not care. They were about to fall to their deaths in a few seconds. Rayne quickly scanned the area under their feet with her helmet. She turned the helmet back to headphones. Grabbed the captain by his collar. Pushed his face close to her face and pronounced eight words: "RUN WITH ME, JUMP WHEN I SAY JUMP."

"This one, remove this one." Rayne points to a scale that looks like the others. The torch on her right breast pocket shines intense white light on where she is pointing.

They have been removing scales for the past 10 minutes. The last removed scale is a few meters to their left, still bleeding.

The captain hooks his knife under the scale, pushed it up and removes the 45 centimeters of rock-like plate from the skin of the creature. The worm jitters with pain, the flesh under the scale starts oozing blood. The Captain moves to the side and Rayne pushes her arms deep into the exposed flesh holding the small round plastic ball with glowing numbers. The captain suspects it is some sort of measuring device.

"What exactly are you looking for?"

Rayne turns her face to the captain. She stares at him for a second as if to gather her thoughts.

"I am looking for the central nervous system."

She violently pushes her arms out. The captain is at a secure distance away and is spared from receiving blood on his face. He is still not used to the nauseating scene.

Rayne walks a few meters to their right and points to another scale on the worm's body "This one."

The captain walks to where she is pointing. He looks at the red-purple scale for one second, pushes the knife's tip under the scale, and detaches it in one movement. He jumps back to stay away from the worm writhing in pain.

The exposed flesh slowly starts oozing. Rayne pushes her arms deep into the flesh. Her eyes become dark. "A worm has many nervous knots," she finally replies. She looks at the captain to check if he is following. "A knot is a decision-making center." she removes her arms from the worm, spraying small drops of gore into the air. "There are many knots on this enormous creature, but there is always one central knot that connects the whole system. It is the seed that Karen was talking about."

The captain remembers the monitor room and the woman with glasses explaining "...the creation of the worm requires a seed..."

"How big is this...seed?"

"Must be around 4 to 5 kilograms," Rayne looks at the captain to check his reaction. "...about the size of a baby," she walks and points to another scale on the worm.